Richard Zane Smith Explained

Richard Zane Smith (born 1955) is an American sculptor who grew up in St. Louis Missouri and learned the art of pottery at the Kansas City Art institute. Smith's works draw from his self-identified Wyandotte heritage as well as Pueblo inspired designs that incorporate coils and layers within the clay. Smith utilizes the influences of many Southwestern pottery styles, including the Pueblos and the Ancestral Pueblo people.

The Wyandotte Nation tribal council has named Smith as a designated tribal artisan, as defined in the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.[1]

Personal life

Zane is a member of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, a nonprofit organization that self-identifies as Wyandot descendants. He was born in 1955 and claims to be from the Wyandot families of Kansas and related to several Wyandotte families in Oklahoma.[2] Born in and Army Hospital in Augusta, Georgia and grew up in and near St. Louis, Missouri. Smith specialized in ceramics when he attended the Kansas City Art Institute.

Smith was introduced to art at a young age. He and his four siblings would gather around and listen to many stories told by their parents throughout their childhood. Smith found an interest in clay during his high school years. In addition to clay, Smith would work with many natural materials, such as wood, leather, and stone, and the main media for his art was clay. During these same years, Smith also formed an interest with his self-identified Wyandot roots.[3]

Smith is involved in the revival of the Wyandot language.[4] Having gone into disuse in the 1960s, Smith began studying and teaching the language to Wyandotte people and descendants.

Cultural inspiration

In 1978, Smith traveled to Arizona where he worked as an art instructor at a Navajo mission school. This was his first contact with Native clays and Ancestral Pueblo potsherds and fragments.[5] He incorporated such ideas into his works and bore a new style of pottery. Smith's pottery draws inspiration from precontact corrugated pottery (pottery where the coils made to form the shape of the pot are left exposed and are rough textured) from the Southwest as well as resembling historic Wyandot basketry.[6] Smith stands out for moving from Southwest-style pottery to exploring Wyandot styles of pottery.[7]

Select artworks

Exhibitions

Public collections

Honors and awards

Richard Zane Smith no longer participates in competitions against other artists.

See also

References

  1. Web site: Hear Our Voices with Richard Zane Smith . Museum of Native American History . 7 August 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230221005831/https://www.monah.org/past-events/2021/2/13/hear-our-voices-with-richard-zane-smith . February 21, 2023 . Bentonville, AR . dead.
  2. Book: Warren, Stephen. 1970 . The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma: Resilience through adversity. University of Oklahoma Press. 978-0-8061-6101-3 . 1004564496 .
  3. Web site: Richard Zane Smith #020417 • Native American Collections. Native American Collections. en-US. 2020-02-18.
  4. Web site: Troubled tonguesSome Indian languages in Oklahoma are among those on an endangered list. 2007-09-19. Oklahoman.com. en-US. 2020-02-18.
  5. Web site: Zane Smith, Richard (b. 1955) Archives - King Galleries. en-US. 2020-02-18.
  6. Book: Cohen, Lee . Art of Clay: Timeless Pottery of the Southwest . 1993 . Clear Light Publishers . 0-940666-19-7 . 1108717290.
  7. 1969. An Art Museum for the University of Iowa . Art Journal . 29 . 1. 48–50. 10.2307/775280 . 0004-3249 . 775280.
  8. Web site: Richard Zane Smith (OK) . THE LAST DROP: INTOXICATING POTTERY, PAST AND PRESENT . en-US. 2020-03-03.
  9. Web site: NATIVE AMERICAN – Collections – Philbrook Museum of Art. philbrook.emuseum.com. 2020-02-18.
  10. Book: Heard Museum.. Masterworks from the Heard Museum.. 2002. Heard Museum. 0-934351-67-8. 49900447.
  11. Web site: Richard Zane Smith's Artwork. www.wyandot.org. 2020-02-18.
  12. Web site: Richard Zane Smith. First Peoples Fund. en-US. 2020-02-18.

External links